Remember and Rise cancelled over survivors' reparations demands

Stage for the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission's cancelled "Remember & Rise" commemorative event, set up in the middle of ONEOK Field. May 28, 2021. Copyright 2021 Michael D. Bates. All rights reserved.

Omar Villafranca of CBS News reports this morning that the cancellation of Monday's "Remember and Rise" concert, organized by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, was due to demands made by lawyers representing the three living survivors and descendants of departed survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre:

CBS News has learned the event was canceled after a lawyer representing survivors and their heirs made demands that the organizing commission considered unreasonable.

A commission source showed CBS News an e-mail listing demands that was sent by the lawyer Sunday.

It includes $1 million each for survivors of the massacre and a non-negotiable $50 million pledge to a fund for survivors and descendants.

(National Geographic magazine estimates that the attack on Greenwood destroyed property that, had it accrued to the present day, would be worth approximately $600 million dollars, according to a statement made by historian Scott Ellsworth during his presentation yesterday at the John Hope Franklin Symposium.)

The source told CBS News the commission and lawyer had already agreed on financial terms, but the new demands couldn't be met, at least in time for Monday's commemoration.

The lawyer claimed to CBS News that the commission hasn't been negotiating in good faith for months, and he maintained that the survivors never agreed to participate in the event.

The story is also available on the KOTV News on 6 website.

Last night, when the cancellation was announced, the News on 6, Tulsa's CBS affiliate, reported, "News On 6 had a number of sources reach out citing specific reasons why the Remember & Rise event was canceled, but at this time, we have not been able to get anyone on the record."

That initial story quoted the Commission's news release: "due to unexpected circumstances with entertainers and speakers, the Centennial Commission is unable to fulfill our high expectations for Monday afternoon's commemoration event and has determined not to move forward with the event at this time." My suspicion was that Stacey Abrams and John Legend were made aware of the strife between the Commission and the community and were concerned about damage to their reputations if they participated in an event that was disavowed by massacre survivors and descendants. The statement could also be read as indicating that the Commission was unable to secure the participation of the survivors and did not want to go forward without it. There is also the unspoken threat of embarrassing protests. Dissenting members of the community had already set up a rival series of events, the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival, which will include nationally known politicians and entertainers.

Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center, a $20 million project of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission. The building looks like the sort of thing a small-town bank with more budget than taste would have built in the 1960s, after knocking down their 1890s Romanesque Revival edifice. Copyright 2021 Michael D. Bates. All rights reserved.

UPDATE 11:30pm, 2021/05/28:

Below is the email from survivors' attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons to the Centennial Commission, obtained by News on 6. The email appears to have been written on Sunday, May 23, 2021, and refers to a meeting on Saturday, May 22, 2021.

The email mentions an article in the May 22 Enid News, reported by Janelle Stecklein, chief of the CNHI Oklahoma Capitol Bureau, which included the following statements from State Sen. Kevin Matthews, chairman of the Centennial Commission, commenting on the demand from the survivors for some of the money raised by the Commission to tell the 1921 story to help make whole those who lost everything in 1921.

However, Matthews said the plaintiffs don't have a right to the $30 million raised to construct the history center because the money was donated expressly to build it.

"The first goal is to tell the story, transparently," Matthews said. "That's the foundation of reparations."

He said that during the past 100 years there have been books, movies and documentaries about the massacre. Survivors haven't sought those profits, but now the efforts of local Tulsa residents trying to tell the story are being attacked.

"I will say that I am not angry about those accusations," Matthews said. "I think that they come from an honest place. Unfortunately when you have a community that is starved of resources and attention for so many years, these types of things happen rather than ... having meaningful discussions instead of pointing and blaming. And, unfortunately that happens in traumatized communities, families and relationships."

Matthews said one of the center's donors has independently agreed to pay the three survivors salaries and assist with their health care costs during the remainder of their lives.

But he said the survivors didn't mention that assistance during their congressional testimonies calling for reparations.

With that in mind, here is the letter from Solomon-Simmons:

Good evening Everyone,

First thank you for your time yesterday. Please know that we thought the meeting was productive. leaving the meeting we were cautiously optimistic that an agreement could be reached which would allow us to have a more unified Centennial commemoration. However, finding out today that Sen. Kevin Matthews, Chair of the Centennial
Commission, attacked the credibility and integrity of our survivors has set-us back some.

As a result, this is where we are and/or what we need in order to come to an agreement at this point:

1. $1M per survivor. We believe you understand this is a priority for us. We believe you understand there is a great sense of urgency. We understood that you are going to visit with the Commission/TCF/Funders to ascertain how much you can commit to providing to the survivors before May 31st 2021.

2. $50M pledge to our Survivor and Descendant fund.

a. After debriefing with our advisors, we have decided we will not agree with any other entity housing our fund.

This is non-negotiable. It is important to us and our community that our fund be housed at a Black bank.

b. As I explained during our meeting we have been working with our corporate counsel, Schulte, Roth, and Zable (including William Zable), and our mentor Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative to develop our fund. With Bryan's counsel we have identified 6 Black banks that we are currently in discussions with about the possibility of holding our fund.

c. With the help of our national partners, we plan to announce our fund at our May 31st, 2021 nationally streamed Survivor and Descendant Town Hall with an initial fund raising goal of $100M.

d. We request that the Commission/TCF/Funders pledge to raise $50M for our fund. If you agree to this, we would like for you to specify a date you plan to have this amount raised by.

3. Allot 33% of Greenwood Rising revenue to directly benefit survivors and descendants and the North Tulsa community. We understand you believe this ask is high. However, we understand you will visit with the Commission/TCF/Funder to ascertain what type of revenue split would be acceptable to you. We also understand that you would agree to make a public announcement to work towards establishing a TIF district for the Historical
Greenwood community that would directly and specifically benefit North Tulsa.

4. Greenwood Rising board make-up. We understand that you are going to ascertain whether the Commission/TCF/Funders will agree to expand the board by 6 to 15 and allow us to select those 6 new members.

5. Public Support of lawsuit. We understand that you will visit with the Commission/TCF/Funders to ascertain whether you all will publicly support our litigation and efforts to hold the perpetrators of the Massacre and its aftermath accountable.

6. Public apology from Commission Chairman Sen. Matthews for Attacking Survivors.

a. Sen. Matthews must immediately and publicly apologize for his inaccurate portrayal of the survivors, his misrepresentation of the proposed gift from GKFF, and our campaign for justice and reparations in the media. https://www.enidnews.com/news/last-tulsa-race-massacre-survivors-push-for-reparations/article_cf550c14-ba7c-11eb-b273-872233bcb49b.html.

b. GKFF and I agreed that any gift would be strictly anonymous to ensure the gift would not impede our larger reparations campaign. In fact, the grant agreement specifically states the grant would be "anonymous and not be announced in an way publicly or privately." Obviously, this confidential agreement was breached, and the proposed gift
is now being used to try to put the survivors in a false light to lessen their credibility and undermine our overall reparations fight. As a result, we will decline the grant.

c. Sen. Matthews needs to clearly state that no Commission donor has given any funds to Justice For Greenwood or the Survivors. Despite what Sen. Matthews and others have falsely stated, there was never an agreement to provide for the survivors "for the rest of their life" or "all of their medical needs." Sen. Matthews' public apology and clarification must occur by the end of business tomorrow Monday May 24, 2021.

7. Rise and Remember Event. If we can get to an agreement on the above, we would also want to help shape the program of the Rise and Remember event at ONEOK Field occurring on May 31, 2021. We want an opportunity to speak and honor the survivors and our work.

In regard to timing because our events begin Thursday May 27th 2021, and our schedules will be completely swamped from then on, we believe that we need to have an agreement on the above points by Wednesday May 26th 2021. As a result, we believe we should schedule our next meeting for tomorrow afternoon Monday, May 24th 2021. We are available between 3-5pm.

Please let us know what time will work for you. Dr. Crutcher will be in Dallas for a speech, so a Zoom call is preferable. Lastly, we request that until and unless we can get to an agreement please remove any refe[re]nce of survivors participating in any Commission events from your website.

Thank you.

Damario Solomon-Simmons, Esq., M.Ed.
Managing Partner
SolomonSimmonsLaw

In a brief press availability today, Matthews took no questions, but, according to News on 6, he stated that "they had been approached by legal representation of the three living survivors and said they had agreed to $100,000 per survivor, along with $2 million in seed money for a reparations fund. He said they had raised the money."

Michael Mason of the Center for Public Secrets posted late this afternoon on Facebook:

According to an unnamed source, Abrams and Legend backed out because the Commission would not bend to the survivor's demands.

This evening I walked through the Greenwood District and past ONEOK Field, still set up for Remember and Rise -- a massive stage in the outfield, seats in the infield, generators on the outfield concourse. Workers appeared to be packing stage equipment into cases. It seems a shame that, after all the preparation, with seats and a stage in place, nothing will happen there on Monday evening.